A2 Media Studies: Advanced Portfolio in Media

• There are several stereotypical conventions of music videos: • There are character specific traits in all music video genres. • Music videos represent genre characteristic e.g. the use of cars, women

and money in most hip hop/rnb, certain emotions portrayed in the Indie/Alternative genre.

• There is a relationship between music, lyrics and visuals.• The pace of the song often coincides with the style of editing, shot variety

and movement.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation

Conventions of the Indie/Alternative music genre:

• A certain emotion is often portrayed throughout the music video, there are usually underlying problems with the main character in the video.

• There is a narrative to the music video; it is structured a bit like a very small film.

• There shots, editing and effects used correspond with the tempo of the song, a lot of slowing, fading and fast cuts are used to symbolise and create a longer lasting feel of what the music video is trying to portray.

• There isn’t a typical costume that is used in this genre; it is generically just everyday wear.

• The type of music video can vary from being incredibly simplistic to having

a lot of special effects and innovative editing and shots.

Evaluation

How I have followed these conventions:

• I chose to follow the conventions of this genre of music as I feel it would be quite challenging as well as being interesting too watch/create.

• I have opted to use several shots and different effects and transitions that correspond with the tempo of the song; I used a lot of slowing, fading, fast cuts and certain colour transitions.

• The music video is quite simplistic but has several good shots and will manage to keep you watching it and hopefully, entertained.

Evaluation

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

• My ancillary texts correspond with my main product as they use certain genre signifies and preferred audience readings. I decided to keep everything simple, the website homepage and CD cover are very minimalist/simplistic but are in a way, as effective as any other product that may endorse lots of advertisement and quite ‘In your face’. The images used on the CD cover are similar as to what was used in the music video; they’re often of different type’s scenery, which I think works as I’ve carried the same style over throughout all of the products, I’ve chosen to use a prominent font that I’ve chosen to use throughout which would allow the audience to be able to identify the artist without any hesitation.

• I feel that the audience would feel like they could relate and would feel a part of something when purchasing the products, they may be feeling isolated and by being a part of something they would feel as if they’re apart of a community. The products also provide some clarity of thought and would make the audience realise that there is much more to life, the simplicity and beauty of it would provide clarity and get them out of a state of confusion.

• There is continuity throughout all my products, allowing the audience to be able to identify the artist just by viewing a CD cover or website homepage, the fonts, colours and style all correspond with the music video/artist.

Evaluation

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• After posting my video on facebook and youtube I got several comments about my music video, praising what was good about it and some criticisms that could have been improved.

Evaluation

I so agree with some of the criticisms that I’ve received as at times the video can be repetitive and could have been put together more subtly instead of fading most scenes into the next.

• I feel that receiving audience feedback throughout the production of the product is substantial in creating a successful media product. By getting audience feedback throughout would help you assess and alter certain elements of the product, creating something that the target audience would appreciate and want to purchase it.

• If I were to do anything differently next time I would certainly work to a schedule as I was rushed toward the end and wasn’t able to get what I wanted.

• I would also try working with a group as working on your own can have it’s ups but it can also be counter productive when trying to think of ideas/brainstorming.

• I would have also liked to have kept my blog update to date as it would help me keep my work organised and dated, but unfortunately during most holiday periods I found it hard to keep it up to date.

Evaluation

Evaluation

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I created a blog on ‘www.blogspot.com’ to upload the different stages of my project; research, planning, construction and evaluation stages. Also, by uploading it onto a public blog everyone would be able to view it and comment on the work I’ve produced, because of this I would be able to take the feedback and perhaps improve my work.

• The internet has been a great help to me as I used it primarily for research into existing products so I would be able to compare my products with real media products and see if they’re similar.

• Online video websites such as YouTube were useful as it is where I was able to view real music videos. In doing so, I was able to analyse the videos to find out what conventions are used in the Indie genre. I was also able to upload my music video onto YouTube for public viewing.

Evaluation

• To film my product I used a digital camcorder as well as a tripod, by using the tripod I was able to take several different shots (Pans, low/high angle, over the shoulder), there would also be no ‘shaking’ of the camera and zooming in and out was significantly easier to execute.

• During the location scouting phase of my project, I used a digital camera to take these pictures, I had to use night mode at times as it would be quite dark outside. I also had to zoom in/out to either get the surrounding area in or just the main area where it is going to happen.

Evaluation

Instead of using Imovie and AppleMacs for the effects, colour correction, editing and transitions I used some of my own software which was adobe premiere CS3 and after effects. Although they have similar features to iMovie, I figured that seeing as I am already familiar with the product it would be far more productive to use it. I was able to put all of the clips into a set sequence in Premiere, as well as removing sound from the original clips and then adding the song to it. Once I sorted out the sequence of the video I then exported it to Adobe After effects which I primarily used for editing the video, adding transitions and effects. I was also able to reduce the amount of shaking when the camera wasn’t mounted by rendering the video files.

Evaluation

• To create my ancillary products I chose to use Adobe Photoshop as it is what I used to create my music magazine in AS media. Photoshop has several different useful features that assisted me in creating the products. These are just some of the tools I used:

Evaluation

• At both the beginning and end of the project I ran a focus group, first of all to research into music videos. I gathered 4-5 students from my class to watch a few music videos and tell me what they enjoyed about the music video, whether it not is was memorable and if it would make them either want to watch the music video again or purchase the product. I used the similar method with my finished product, I showed it to a few students from my class and questioned them about what the thought about the music video, whether or not it was similar to real music videos.

• I also uploading my video onto youtube, facebook and my blog to get more audience feedback, a perk of doing this is that all I have to do is upload it, once it’s there I’m free to carry on with another task whilst people respond to the video.

Evaluation